Spiritual Development is promoted by creating an awareness of God, fostering knowledge and practice of the Gospel values of love and charity toward others, helping the children speak to God through prayer and providing a Christian atmosphere within which to learn.

Cognitive Development is facilitated through the use of all senses, development of critical thinking and problem solving skills, listening skills, development and the ability to follow directions as well as development of fine and gross motor skills.

Socially and Emotionally, our goal is to foster a healthy self-esteem, to develop independence, self-control and tolerance, to foster cooperation and sharing with others, to develop effective communication skills and to enhance each child’s unique gifts and talents.

“Bringing Good News” is the Archdiocese of Baltimore Religion Curriculum for Elementary Schools. This standards-based curriculum serves as a guide, a roadmap for both teachers and students as they embark on a journey, which will provide them with the knowledge and understanding of the faith as witnessed in the teachings and the traditions of the Catholic Church. The curriculum is built on the Six Tasks of Catechesis: Promoting Knowledge of the Faith; Liturgical Education; Moral Formation; Teaching to Pray; Education for Community Life; and Missionary Initiation and is aligned with the Assessment of Catholic Religious Education (IFG:ACRE). By the completion of preschool, students will master a variety of skills including:

• Identify self and my family as belonging to God’s family.
• Identify the Bible as a special book about God.
• Dramatize the stories about Jesus from the Bible, i.e. The Last Supper, The Christ Child in the Temple, The Good Samaritan.
• Demonstrate how we show our love by using kind words and positive actions.
• Participate in prayer with the family, alone, in class and at Church.
• Identify the saints as God’s special friends who are part of the family of the Church in heaven.
• Discover that God has made each of them special and that individual differences are gifts from God.
• Understand when we help our family and friends we are showing love to others like Jesus did.

The curriculum for all elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore include the following units:

• Counting and Cardinality
• Operations and Algebraic Thinking
• Measurement and Data
• Numbers and Operations in Base Ten
• Geometry
• Numbers and Operations

Catholic educators never forget that our schools exist to bring our students to Christ. By continuing to implement new standards that are challenging, we work to fulfill the promise of quality Catholic education that educates the whole child, both mind and soul. By the completion of preschool, students will master a variety of skills including:

• Count groups of objects to 10 in order to solve a problem.
• Subitize: immediate recognition of the number of a group without counting.
• Manipulate actual, physical objects to represent the problem when working on a solution (e.g. apples to represent apples).
• Use measurement vocabulary when describing the attributes of objects.
• Recognize shapes in their real-world environment.

The English Language Arts Curriculum for the Archdiocese of Baltimore is designed using the Catholic, College and Career Ready clusters as its foundation. Through literature, this course of study fosters students’ Catholic identity, shaping them to be models of Christian living for others. This curriculum is fully integrated with our Catholic faith. We provide students with a curriculum that is rigorous and rich in literature, oral and written language, grammar, writing, vocabulary, informational literature, and multimedia/technology. By the completion of preschool, students will master a variety of skills including:

• Exhibit curiosity and interest in learning new vocabulary (e.g. ask questions about unfamiliar vocabulary).
• Describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).
• Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
• Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
• Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings.

While there are not defined standards in preschool for the following subject areas, Catholic schools offer exploration and introduction to the content that will be learned in future grade levels:

• Science
• Instructional Technology
• Social Studies
• Visual and Performing Arts
• Physical Education/Health
• World Languages

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